Worldwide building designers are subjected to the pressures of limited resources, rising costs and competition. Increased global competition and collaboration as well as the seemingly ever-increasing affordability of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)are promoting the role of virtual design teams. This paper reports on research conducted by the Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation into "Team Collaboration in High Bandwidth Environments" and design team activities, processes and skills occurring in co-located environments and contrasts these with those exhibited in virtual teams. Designers involved in collaborative design using various ICT technologies (ranging from original co-located systems to high bandwidth 3D virtual worlds) were videoed. The resulting data were analysed and identify appropriate generic skills necessary when interacting and collaborating using different electronic media. This study presents a case for ongoing research into the area of generic skills within virtual design teams